If you’ve taken music lessons in the United States or another English speaking country, there’s a good chance that the only palette of colors you’ve ever gotten to paint with are the major and minor scales of European art music. Don’t get us wrong, you can make incredible music with those scales, but it can also feel like only ever eating vanilla ice cream or only ever having the basic box of 8 crayons. Luckily, the major and minor scales we’re most familiar with are just one of many answers to the problem of dividing up the octave. Cultures around the world have come up with different solutions to the octave problem ranging from five-note pentatonic scales that have been found from Asia to the Americas for the past 50,000 years to twenty-two-note microtonal scales in Indian classical music. There are thousands of musical color palettes to draw from; no need to limit yourself to the basic crayon box.

In this article, we’ll share some scales you can start exploring that use the same half step intervals found in European art music as well as briefly discuss some microtonal scales if you want to dive in deeper.

When it first premiered in 2002, American Idol became an unexpected breakout hit, launching unknown singers to international stardom and inspiring millions of aspiring performers to sing their hearts out at auditions across the country. Twenty years after that first season, there are more than half a dozen variations on the reality tv singing competition currently on the air and vocalists continue to line up around the block for their chance at a big break. From the comfort of the couch, these shows look like a way for undiscovered talents to bypass industry gatekeepers and jumpstart their careers based solely on their merits. Unfortunately, like most TV competitions, the reality of reality singing shows doesn’t match what you see on the screen

We spoke to our friends Joelle, Tyler, and TJ to hear about their experiences with TV singing competitions. Below we’ll look at the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of reality shows.

If you take lessons for voice or any other instrument, you’re going to find yourself singing or playing scales. Even if you play a non-pitched instrument like the drum set, your teacher will give you a list of exercises to practice between lessons. The oddly specific, repetitive drills can feel a bit like your high school math homework: theory with little-to-no real world application. However, we promise you that, unlike your 10th grade trigonometry class, you’ll actually use what you learn running drills every time you sing.

The human voice is amazing; as unique as a finger print and capable of moving an audience to tears or bringing a crowd to their feet. As we build our skills as singers, one of the biggest challenges is making the leap from doing an impression of your favorite artists to singing with our own voice. Finding your voice sounds like some big, existential quest, but it doesn’t have to be nearly that daunting and doesn’t require any mountaintop pilgrimages or the slaying of mythological monsters. Your unique voice is already inside of you; it’s just a matter of learning to hear it. Below, we’ll explain why your voice is uniquely yours and how to explore it, but first let’s bust a myth.

It seems like Christmas music is as unavoidable as the winter weather this time of year. Love it or hate it, you’ll probably be asked to perform a holiday song at some point in your singing career, maybe even an entire seasonal set. If you’ve never put together your own setlist before, it can feel a little daunting. Even if you’re a seasoned pro, the polarizing nature of holiday music can make it challenging to build a great repertoire. So how do you create a holiday setlist that both you and your audience will enjoy?

Auditions are stressful. Even if you follow every step in the process we laid out during out last article, you’ll still likely experience some level of performance anxiety. It’s completely reasonable to feel nervous around an audition: they’re a potential turning point in our careers or lives, they tap into our fear of the unknown, and the process of standing in front of judging strangers could have been lifted directly from an anxiety dream. The whole process can be an emotional rollercoaster of anxiety, desire, and - frequently - disappointment.

We spoke to our friends Tyler, Joelle, and TJ; all professional vocalists who have gone to their fair share of auditions. Below we share our best advice alongside their real-world anecdotes to help you navigate the emotional minefield of auditioning.

Whether you’re a student, a professional musician, or a passionate hobbyist looking to join a local choir or theatre production, you’ll probably have to audition at some point. Unfortunately, the process of auditioning can feel like something lifted directly from an anxiety dream: standing alone in front of a group of strangers who’s whole job is to judge you based off one performance. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that auditions are a major source of stress for musicians and a common reason many singers seek out a vocal coach. While we can’t make auditioning 100% stress free, we are firm believers that knowledge is power here at Love Your Voice and that breaking big tasks into smaller steps can make them that much more manageable. With that in mind, we’ve broken the audition process into steps, from research to self-care after the fact.

Many of our articles touch on the different aspects of self-care that a professional voice user might want to incorporate into their daily routine. Spread out across ten or so articles, it might feel overwhelming to incorporate them all into one, streamlined practice. In this article, I wanted to share the success story of one of my students who took this holistic approach to vocal health and ran with it.

We’ve all heard horror stories about singers losing their voices; Adele famously required surgery to treat nodes on her vocal cords. Because of this, vocal health and safety is one of the primary focuses of singing lessons, but singers aren’t the only professional voice users who need to protect and care for their instruments. Talking can cause just as much vocal strain, wear, and tear as singing - sometimes more so, because we often take our speaking voices for granted.

We spend a lot of time writing about singing, but loving your voice is so much more than making music; it’s caring for you body and speaking with confidence. For some of us, speaking with confidence means learning how to talk to a crowd, but for many of us it means reducing our accent. We sat down with Zelda to learn the basics of accent reduction from a pro.

Welcome to Part II of our two part series on backing tracks. So, you’ve got your tracks, you’ve perfected your performance, and you’re ready to share your talent with your community. It’s time to book a show! Whether you’re playing your first open mic or performing a full set, there are a few Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind before rocking live with your new track.

So you’ve started your singing journey. Maybe you rock out a cappella or sing along with the radio when you’re making music at home. Your voice teacher might accompany you on guitar or piano during lessons, giving you a chance to hear your own voice while still having the harmonic support of an instrument. But if you don’t play an instrument, how do you get this experience at home? Getting a great backing track used to be a much bigger challenge, but - thanks to the miracle of modern technology and the internet - a great track is just a click away!